ripley is involved in a letter exchange with the little boy down the street. ever since we got ripley, she has been particularly entranced with this little boy, and he her. and lately they have been exchanging letters, and agreed to meet last night -- on halloween -- to show each other their costumes.
not surprisingly, rip was pretty freaked out by halloween. we had already been tormenting her with the mechanical bat (a family tradition), and the next door neighbors had a spooky soundtrack and strobe light coming from their basement. ripley was a bit overwhelmed. (hey, does our pumpkin look slightly korean to you?)
and even though rip had received a missive earlier in the week letting her know how her special friend would be dressed...
when he actually appeared -- walking stiffly and undoubtedly not smelling a bit like usual -- ripley went completely bonkers. although leashed and harnessed to our front steps, she backed out of all her restraints, and took off at top speed, across the street and towards the park.
it is an AWFUL thing to see your little brownheaded puppy disappear into the night, running in terror. ben, who had been sitting on the steps, flew after her. the treat bowl on his lap spun into the air. candy was everywhere. the robot and his sister, snow white, were pretty darned concerned, too. luckily, the drama was very short-lived. ripley is home safely and is looking forward to a visit with her friend as long as he has returned to his normal identity.
other than that, it was a perfectly good halloween! roasted pumpkin seeds are great on tilapia, by the way.
what does it take to make a "dracula parade?
the whole thing was rather like a fever dream.
it takes some toothy things, to start.
a vulture with a big blue eye is also not out of place at a dracula parade.
a couple of older folks in a horse and carriage playing the theme from alfred hitchcock presents on accordions -- that fits --
as does a big anthropomorphic garlic.
and of course a dracula parade needs a big float featuring the count himself. which, this year, had its thunder stolen by the baby in the crustacean costume.
a very fun time, preceeded by the sighting of a very large hawk in the trees of rittenhouse park.
halloween can't come soon enough for ripley -- and with its passing, the return of her dignity. she does not know about the wine-colored satin christmas gown with rhinestone belt buckle, from target, that is sitting on the bookshelf.
flan's so patient about these things. this is her marty feldman costume.
you know what they say: don't postpone joy. it may be a little early for halloween costume pictures but god knows there is NO guarantee they will be willing to do this for us in another four weeks. now that they know what it entails, chances are they won't be willing to do it again (although we really laid it on with the treats afterwards.)
we went to the henri david ball this year, costumed as the mexican day of the dead and the chinese new year.
i knitted a good portion of both costumes, and an entire rundown of the components and history is available on the knitting blog. while ben's costume was an exercise in personal obfuscation and easy recognizability, mine was subtler, more of an incorporation of personality and concept. in fact, i've worn stranger outfits for everyday, and can re-use much of this costume for just that. I KNITTED MY OWN FUCKING FISHNET STOCKINGS, PEOPLE. let's give the lady a hand.
at these fancy events, it always happens: some egyptian hieroglyph comes running up to you flashing her new engagement ring. this year, it was our amy. here she is with her betrothed, her brother, and her brother's girlfriend.
we also saw my dad's friends jerry and ken. we hear this morning that they, of course, won a prize. they always do. wish we had a better photo here, but they usually get a nice one in the philadelphia papers or on the news, so we're sure to see more.
we didn't actually get to see robby and sal as st. sebastian and the roman soldier, but robby sent a photo. it's not that robby's costumes seem to endavor to incorporate the least amount of fabric and the greatest amount of porcelain white skin; it's not. at least, i've never noticed a trend. i'd like to go on record as saying that.
gummy brains!
we also got gummy mummies, and "count blacula" gumballs, which are black with a "blood filled" center. halloween is no time to be politically correct. not about candy.
the gummy brains are a particularly high quality gummy.
here's hillel with a battery-operated bat from the craft store. believe me when i say hillel needs to learn to be terrified of something in this world. "bats" are apparently topping that list now.
pajama bottoms. from target.
target and halloween. they just go together. this was my first big outing since destroying my foot on monday. i rode around in one of the little electric carts, like an old person. it was EXCELLENT.
yes i will wear these out in public -- to work -- and yes i will probably wear them year 'round. terror pants, baby!
want to know more about how they were made?
check out the knitting page!
this was no great culinary achievement. this was mix from a box. (we also did slice-and-bake cookies). but we had GRAVESTONE SHAPED SPRINKLES, among other things, and these scary plastic corpse-hands. appetizing! we also had dreadful colds while making these. (then we gave them to people we work with. boo!)